DENVER — This is what it’s supposed to look like when you collect the free square on the NL West bingo card.
But the Dodgers’ needed their 12-hit afternoon to hand the Colorado Rockies a 9-5 defeat on Thursday afternoon in order to salvage a split in the four-game series and send the Dodgers to San Diego still in sole possession of first place in the division.
The Dodgers scored in each of the first five innings Thursday, got home runs from Freddie Freeman and Andy Pages and five extra-base hits in all, including two from rookie Alex Freeland (a double and a triple).
The Dodgers’ division lead didn’t disappear in thin air, but it also didn’t expand as they would have hoped.
Thursday’s split-saver will have to suffice as momentum heading into their latest (and last of this regular season) showdown series against the Padres who went into Thursday one game back in the division. Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Yoshinobu Yamamoto are lined up to start for the Dodgers – and will meet them in San Diego well-rested and untainted by the lackluster effort at Coors Field. Snell and Glasnow did not even travel with the team to Colorado. Yamamoto left after his seven-inning effort on Monday.
With Shohei Ohtani out of the lineup, nursing the thigh contusion he suffered Wednesday, and Teoscar Hernandez also getting the day off, the Dodgers were without their top two RBI men. Seven of the nine starters stepped up to fill the void.
Freeman started it with a 451-foot, two-run home run in the first inning. Miguel Rojas took the short route, bunting in a run in the second inning and Will Smith drove in another by getting hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
Freeland led off the third with his triple and scored on a single by Alex Call. Mookie Betts and Freeman led off the fourth with singles. Betts scored on a sacrifice fly by Michael Conforto and Freeland doubled Freeman home.
Pages led off the fifth with his home run.
Coors Field has never been Clayton Kershaw’s favorite stop on the NL circuit. His 4.53 ERA in 29 starts there is his highest at any stadium where he has pitched more than twice.
He persevered into the sixth inning, buoyed by the Dodgers’ steady stream of run support on a hot afternoon at altitude when temperatures easily exceeded Kershaw’s average fastball velocity. He gave up single runs in the first, fourth and sixth innings before heading to the air-conditioned comfort of the clubhouse.
He might have shed a little more sweat watching the Dodgers’ bullpen give up a two-run home run to Brenton Doyle in the eighth before his 220th career victory became official.
More to come on this story.